Iowa receives grant money to fight opioid abuse

The Iowa Department of Public Health is announcing an award of $5.45 Million in federal funding to fight opioid addiction.

Iowa is not alone in its opioid in problem.

“The country has really seen a pretty dramatic increase in deaths from opioid overdoses in the last 10 years,” says Monica Wilke-Brown, who will manage the Iowa Opioid State Targeted Response Project.

The money has become available through the 21st Century Cures Act and will be paid out over 2 years.

The state is still working to learn where the money will be most effective.

“We're actually starting with the community assessment and planning process to make sure that all of the areas of Iowa have a chance to pull together all the stakeholders from the community and make sure that they aren't missing any major gaps,” says Wilke-Brown.

Prevention and treatment are key areas in need of funding but people close to the issue also hope it will help create accessibility to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone.

According to Kevin Gabbert, the State Opioid Treatment Authority, it’s an extremely effective option to save lives but it's not always a one dose wonder.

“It could take as many as four or five administrations of Naloxone for a reversal to occur, so for that reason it's important that we make Naloxone as readily available as possible or as lower of cost as possible,”

It is a difficult enemy to fight and the front lines may be closer to home than you think.

“Most of the deaths from overdoses associated with opioids have happened on the eastern side of the state,” says Wilke-Brown.